Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) PLC has approached a Federal high court in Lagos to salvage the sum of N4.1 billion vanished from it coffers due to system glitch.
NIBSS filed the suit before the court and joined 45 other financial institutions as defendants.
The applicant is urging the court to issue an order mandating the respondent’s financial institutions and the named banks to immediately place a Post No Debt restriction on all the accounts of the beneficiaries.
According to an affidavit sworn to buy Patience Johnson, a litigation officer at Manifield Solicitors and filed before the court by her law firm, the deponent alleged:
The Applicant Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System PLC is a duly registered company with the Corporate Affairs Commission and licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria to provide a mechanism for clearing and settlement of interbank transfers and payments.
However, on the 6th day of September 2024, the Applicant experienced a system glitch that affected the Applicant’s Instant Pay (NIP) engine, resulting in an unexpected behavior that allowed customers of the financial institutions named before the court as respondents to initiate the unauthorized transfer of funds to various accounts.
The unauthorized transfer transactions covered a period between 6th September 2024 to 9th September 2024, and this occurrence was observed at about 12.30 pm on Monday, 9 September 2024. In the course of concluding the settlement for the NIP Transaction conducted over the weekend,
These transfers were routed to 176 accounts residing with the respondents.
The financial exposure of the Applicant from this incident is in the sum of N13,662,138,920.00 (thirteen billion, six hundred and sixty-two million one hundred and thirty-eight thousand nine hundred and twenty naira only). Details of the fund and respective accounts with the Respondents had been filed before the court.
The Applicant, having observed the transactions, immediately took steps to contact the respondents, requesting that a Post No Debt status be placed on the respective accounts where the funds had been traced
Further investigation in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, regulatory bodies, and law enforcement agents revealed a further attempt to dissipate the funds to a previously unknown set of beneficiaries who are domiciled with the respondents
The funds dissipated to the new set of beneficiaries amount to N4 190 101 636 (Four billion one hundred and ninety million, one hundred and one thousand six hundred and thirty-six naira).
The funds dissipated to another set of beneficiaries amounting to the sum N8 151 388 207.70 Eight billion one hundred and fifty-one million three hundred and eight-eight naira thousand two and seven naira seven kobo). The details of the fund and respective accounts with the respondents are as set out in Exhibit filed before the court.
Without the intervention of the Court, the funds which form the subject matter of this suit may be irretrievably dissipated.
The Applicant is fully aware that its interest can only be protected by restriction of the accounts to the tune of the sums received to avoid dissipation of the funds which could lead to a total loss of these funds.
By virtue of the CBN Circular of 13th September 2018 on the regulation of instant (Inter-bank) Electronic Funds Transfer and by Clause 10 of the CBN Regulation on Instant (inter-bank) Electronic Funds Transfer Services in Nigeria, 2018, NIBSS is entitled to block of the accounts and the cooperation the banks to recover the funds.
Consequently the Applicant seeks the Order of the Court to place restrictions and a Post No Debit (PND) status on the said funds pending the determination of the instant suit